Armey for expulsion

[Thomas Seay]

Chris Matthew's Hard Ball
--- Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com> wrote:
> 
> [Does anyone know what chat-show this was on?]
> 
> Senior Republican calls on Israel to expel West Bank
> Arabs
> Matthew Engel in Washington
> Friday May 03 2002
> The Guardian
> 
> The most senior Republican in the House of
> Representatives has called for
> Palestinians to be expelled from the West Bank,
> which should be annexed in
> its entirety by the state of Israel.
> 
> Dick Armey, majority leader in the House, shocked a
> primetime television
> audience when he said in a chat-show interview, that
> East Jerusalem, the
> West Bank and Gaza - all occupied by the Israeli
> army since the 1967 war -
> should be considered a part of Israel proper. He was
> "content to have a
> Palestinian state", but argued that such an entity
> could be set up inside
> other Arab countries.
> 
> "There are many Arab nations that have many hundreds
> of thousands of acres
> of land and soil and property and opportunity to
> create a Palestinian
> state. I happen to believe the Palestinians should
> leave."
> 
> Mr Armey later backed down slightly and said he did
> not believe "peaceful
> Palestinian civilians should be forcibly expelled"
> but only those who
> supported terrorist acts.
> 
> His original extremist comments underline the extent
> of President Bush's
> dilemma of plotting a balanced course.
> 
> On the one hand, Mr Bush is keen to get Middle East
> peace talks back on
> track, hence this week's plan, announced by the
> secretary of state Colin
> Powell on Thursday night, to hold a peace conference
> this summer.
> 
> On the other, he is aware that if he adopts a stance
> seen as too close to
> the Palestinians he risks alienating public and
> political sentiment which
> has shifted significantly in favour of Israel.
> 
> Mr Armey's views have been scarcely reported in
> America. The only mention
> was a passing reference in the deepest recesses of
> yesterday's New York
> Times and Washington Post.
> 
> The Council on American-Islamic Relations called Mr
> Armey's views "beyond
> belief". Spokesman Jason Erb said that "even the
> most extreme Israelis are
> reluctant to publicly advocate such an insane
> policy". When Ari Fleischer,
> Mr Bush's spokesman, was asked for the president's
> view on what appeared
> to be an argument for ethnic cleansing, he changed
> the subject.
> 
> However, Mr Armey's views were not far out of line
> with on Thursday
> night's debate in the House, which overwhelmingly
> passed a 920-word
> resolution entirely in favour of Israel, save for a
> call to pursue peace
> and a reference to the "humanitarian needs of the
> Palestinian people" -
> tacked on at the White House's request.
> 
> Both the House and the Senate voted for motions
> which started by saying
> that "the US and Israel are now engaged in a common
> struggle against
> terrorism".
> 
> "Let every terrorist know, the American people will
> never abandon freedom,
> democracy or Israel," Mr Armey's deputy, Tom DeLay,
> said in the debate.
> "All free people must recognise that Israel's fight
> is our fight."
> 
> The Senate resolution, promoted by Joe Lieberman, Al
> Gore's running-mate
> who is in creasingly talked about as a possible
> Democratic candidate in
> 2004, resolved to "stand in solidarity with Israel".
> 
> Mr Fleischer said the president respected the right
> of Congress to pass
> non-binding resolutions, but warned that he could
> not operate with "535
> secretaries of state".
> 
> Since his party lost control of the Senate, Mr Armey
> has become arguably
> President Bush's most-important ally on Capitol
> Hill.
> 
> Although Mr Armey retires after elections this year
> and is likely to be
> succeeded by the arguably more extreme Mr DeLa, he
> is unlikely to spend
> his retirement seeing the world: "I've been to
> Europe once," he said, in
> 1998. "I don't have to go again."
> 
> Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
> 

=====
"The tradition of all the dead generations

 weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living"

-Karl Marx

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